Lúcio Hero Guide

Lucio is a versatile, fast-paced healer that can turn the tide of battle with a powerful Ultimate ability. His unique passive ability combined with his powerful buffing auras make him one of Overwatch’s most powerful and valuable heroes. As such, it’s very rare to see a professional match without Lucio in the roster.

In Overwatch lore, Lúcio is a famous Brazilian celebrity. Hailing from a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Lúcio began playing music on street corners as a way to bring his community together after the destruction caused by the Omnic Crisis. Eventually the Vishkar Corporation began to redevelop his neighborhood, but in doing so they enforced strict curfews and rules to control civilian behavior.

Using stolen Vishkar technology, Lúcio was able to rally his community to regain control of their lives. In doing so he became an inspiration to people around the world.

Unlike Mercy, Lúcio isn’t a traditional healer and requires a bit of skill to be truly effective on the battlefield (no offense, Mercy mains). Unfortunately, many players make the mistake of picking Lúcio as a backup healer without paying heed to his full kit—which includes wall-riding, speed boosting, “booping” and distracting enemies.

By mastering each of his skills, you’ll improve the resilience of your whole squad.

Can contest objectives for long periods of time due to how tricky he can be to hit

Alternate fire gives Lúcio a huge advantage around cliffs and ledges

Passive ability enables Lúcio to wall-ride to hard to reach places while still healing and speed boosting allies

Weaknesses

Low healing rate prevents Lúcio from solo healing effectively

Not ideal for keeping tanks and high-health characters alive

Largely depends on team awareness to effectively heal and survive firefights

Self-heal slower than ally healing

Abilities

Base Stats

Health: 200

Armor: No armor

Main Attack: Sonic Projectiles

Description: Lúcio fires sonic projectiles from his Sonic Amplifier

Damage: 20 per shot

Ammo: 20

Lúcio rocks a futuristic megaphone boom box as his main weapon. His main attack shoots 4 rounds per second in a straight line with no fall off damage. Due to the projectile nature of Lúcio’s gun, and the size of each projectile, he’s best at spamming suppressive fire from a distance rather than chasing down targets.

Focus firing at entranceways and chokepoints where enemies are likely to clump up. Since Lúcio’s gun is mainly meant to harass players and prevent them from pushing towards an objective, you can keep firing at enemies whether or not you think you’ll hit them.

Secondary Attack: Soundwave

Soundwave’s relatively short cooldown enables Lúcio to keep knocking players back and can lead to an impressive string of environmental eliminations (or, if anything, completely annoying the enemy team).

Remember that you can Wall Ride and use Lúcio’s primary and secondary fire at the same time. Getting the right angle to boop an enemy Reinhardt may depend on wall riding behind his shield, using Soundwave to knock him back, then speed boosting out of danger.

Environmental Kills

Heroes known for their ability to “boop” characters off the edge of a map include Pharah, Winston and Lúcio. Besides being a quick way to one-shot heroes, booping is also just really fun to do.

Note that characters will fly farther when knocked away if they’re moving or jumping in the same direction as Lúcio. Heroes leaping at Lúcio won’t fly as far, and can correct their landing a bit easier.

Ability 1: Crossfade

Description: Allows Lúcio to alternate between a song that heals and a song that increases movement speed

Healing: (Allies) 16.25 HP per second, (Self) 12 HP per second

Speed: (All) +30% to movement speed

Range: 10m radius

Lúcio has two supportive buffs that he can switch between at any time. Both effects are AoE, meaning rather than focusing on one target at a time Lúcio can concentrate on positioning himself with his team and reacting to the flow of battle.

You can easily see how many teammates are receiving the benefits of either aura by looking at the number highlighted near the center of Lúcio’s HUD.

Healing aura lightly heals all squadmates in a 10-metre radius. Although it heals slowly in comparison to other dedicated healers, it’s the only ability in the game that can continuously heal allies. When boosted by Amp it Up, Lúcio’s healing aura can quickly patch up a team or prevent squadmates from dying.

Speed aura, on the other hand, adds a haste effect that increases everyone’s movement speed by 30%—including Lúcio’s. It’s a versatile ability and the secret sauce that separates average players from the likes of professional ones, such as DSPStanky.

Tips for using speed aura

Speed up allies to quickly reach objectives

Speed up allies that have just respawned (AKA “taxiing”)

Speed up allies to escape enemy attacks, like Mei’s Blizzard or Hanzo’s Dragonstrike

An advanced Lúcio tactic is to constantly crossfade between songs, dishing out quick heals and jolts of speed that give your team an extra edge. A common mistake is to only use speed boost to get your team to an objective, then heal from there on out. But a combination of the two throughout a match is what really makes Lúcio a huge threat on the battlefield.

Ability 2: Amp it Up

Description: Lúcio turns up the volume, significantly improving the effects of his songs for a short period of time

Healing: (Allies) 46.8 HP per second, (Self) 35.1 HP per second

Speed: (All) +70% to movement speed

Range: 10m radius

Duration: 3 seconds

Cooldown: 12 seconds

Amp it Up drastically boosts the power of Lúcio’s healing and speed aura. Allies can be brought back to full health and whole teams can rush through an enemy’s defense.

Tactful usage of Amp it Up allows Lúcio to influence the ebb and flow of battle.

Tips for Amp it Up

Use Amp it Up liberally, but try to predict enemy attacks so you can quickly keep your team alive in case they need it

When it doubt, use Amp it Up to heal 2+ heroes at mid-health or lower

Use it to quickly heal multiple squadmates in the midst of battle

Use it to speed boost Lúcio (and his team) in and out of danger, such as evading enemy ultimate abilities

Use it to chase down stray low-health enemies, like a Mercy that’s trying to escape or revive her team

Use it to initiate a coordinated team push that overwhelms the enemy

Use it to further enhance a buffed ally’s speed, such as a nano-boosted Reinhardt or an ulting Genji

Passive Ability: Wall Ride

Description: Allows Lúcio to skate along walls. Increases speed by 20% with an additional boost when leaping off a wall.

The biggest trick in Lúcio’s bag is also the most underused. Lúcio’s wall riding passive makes him one of the most agile characters in Overwatch, capable of reaching almost any position without having to worry about fuel (Pharah) or a ridiculous hookshot cooldown (Widowmaker).

Wall riding is all about evading enemies while quickly reaching team fights and low-health buddies. It forces players to think outside the box, and can lead to interesting strategies and tactics.

Crafty players should get in the habit of always wall riding when possible—whether to distract enemies, reach vantage points, scout ahead or avoid attacks.

Tips for Wall Ride

You can skate on any wall for a limited amount of time. To continuously wall ride you need to keep jumping to different walls.

You can corner climb by leaping between two angled walls, gradually elevating Lúcio to new heights.

Wall riding can save Lúcio’s life if he’s knocked off the edge of a map. For instance, on the Ilios map The Well, Lúcio can ride inside the well as long as you keep jumping and riding the wall.

Constantly change your speed, direction and elevation to make yourself harder to hit.

Study and practice wall riding on each map to find the best routes. Lúcio can traverse whole maps without ever touching the ground.

Ultimate: Sound Barrier

Description: Lúcio breaks it down, covering himself and his team in a powerful sonic barrier

Shield: (All) +500, shield degrades by 100 points every second for 5 seconds

Range: 30m radius

Duration: 6 seconds

Behold one the most powerful Ultimate abilities in Overwatch: Lúcio’s Sound Barrier. With the ability to completely negate multiple Ultimate abilities simultaneously, Sound Barrier can make or break matches depending on how and when it’s used.

The downside is that Sound Barrier requires some level of coordination in order to be used to its full effect. Since the benefits are only applied to allies within range, Lucio must either situate himself close to his team, or communicate with his team in order to make a push together.

This makes situational awareness (i.e. “game sense”) all the more important. Which ults does your team have available? Can you predict which ults the enemy team might use that you can then counter?

Tips for Sound Barrier

Play conservatively, but not too conservatively. It might seem like a good idea to keep your D.va alive, but what if the rest of your team gets caught in Zarya’s Graviton Surge shortly after?

Avoid using Sound Barrier just to keep your Lúcio alive. You can return to the fight faster than your allies.

Any scenario where Sound Barrier can be used to keep multiple allies alive is as good a time to use it as any.

Using Sound Barrier too early in a fight can be a giant red flag for the enemy team. Knowing you have no defense to counter an assault, they’ll wait for Sound Barrier to end before launching an attack of their own.

Sound Barrier needs to connect with the ground in order for the casting animation to stop. If Lúcio is eliminated in the air while casting then Sound Barrier is cancelled.

General Tips & Strategy

Lúcio is a team player. As such, he’s all about enhancing his team. Beginners should focus on gravitating around their team, radiating the heals while distracting enemies from afar with Lúcio’s primary fire.

In general it’s a good idea to wait for your squad to respawn before jumping back into a fight. This way you can provide speed boost the most people back to the playing field.

Lúcio also helps other supports on his team by giving them more opportunities to focus on keeping high-health characters alive, such as D.va and Reinhardt. Coordinating with your Mercy or Ana can give your team a powerful edge.

Healing aura is really more about providing endurance than spot healing teammates back to 100%. Hover around your team, buffing them appropriately for the situation.

In general, Amp it Up plus speed aura should be used right out of the gate on most maps so that your team can reach the objective first. But on maps where you respawn close to the objective (particularly while playing Defense), hang on to Amp it Up so you can deliver strategic healing once you reach the objective.

Lúcio players will benefit from memorizing specific map layouts, including little nuances that can be exploited by Lúcio’s Wall Ride passive. By memorizing various escape routes and wall riding paths you’ll be prepared for any situation.

Lúcio can begin a wall ride by jumping onto a wall while heading in any direction, but by default he can only wall ride while moving forward. Go into his control settings to enable backwards wall riding.

You can rapidly switch between speed aura and healing aura to make it harder for your enemies to target you. That slight boost of speed can throw their aim off just enough to give you an edge during 1-on-1 conflicts.

When possible, Lúcio’s Ultimate ability should be communicated to his team in order to coordinate a devastating push that can counter multiple enemy assaults.

Specific Map Tips

Lúcio performs well on any map and game type. There are plenty of map specific tips regarding Lúcio, but here are a few that provide him with the best multi-kill boop opportunities.

Lijiang Tower

All three Lijiang Tower arenas are packed with options for Lúcio to get some good boops.

Night Market: The North or South doorways on the control point are great for knocking whole teams off the map.

Garden: The bridges that lead toward the control point. Lúcio can hide behind the nearby wall and surprise enemies that are trying to quickly make it across.

Control Center: Half of the arena is exposed to a dangerous ledge. Lúcio can easily control this whole partition, canceling any flank attempts.

Ilios

Like Lijiang Tower, Ilios’s arenas are quite boopworthy.

The Well: The name of the map says it all. There’s a giant well in the middle of the control point. As if that wasn’t enough, the map straddles a cliff Lúcio can use to boop would- be flankers.

The Lighthouse: More than half of the control point is exposed. Lúcio players are practically guaranteed a couple of choice knockoffs on this map.

Nepal

Lúcio is especially dangerous on Sanctum, where roughly half of the control is exposed to a pit. Lúcio can utilize interesting wall riding paths to line up clever shots as well.

King’s Row

The very end of King’s Row features a large, exposed pit that Lúcio can use to his advantage.

Eichenwalde

The bridge leading towards the castle is a notorious path that Lúcio can patrol.

Match-ups

Lúcio’s high maneuverability lets him outrun most heroes, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be countered.

Lúcio Counters

Torbjorn: Lúcio’s projectiles can pick off Torb’s turrets from a safe distance, while booping Torbjorn with Soundwave can prevent him from constructing or upgrading a turret. Slow mobility and an arching projectile gun make it difficult for Torbjorn to go head-to-head with a fast moving Lúcio.

Mercy: Lúcio can scout out illusive Mercys and communicate her location to his team. From a distance, he can track and harass her with sonic projectiles until she’s taken out of the lineup.

Reaper: An interesting counter, but one that works in Lúcio’s advantage nonetheless. Lúcio’s Soundwave can ruin a clever Reaper from getting the drop on your team. He can also evade Reaper’s shotguns and hit from a safer distance than other characters.

Lúcio is countered by

Mei: Mei’s Frost Stream requires little aiming and can quickly freeze Lúcio before he can speed boost himself away. If you hear a Mei creeping behind you, try to immediately amp up your speed aura and/or boop her away from you to buy some time.

McCree: Part of McCree’s kit allows him to deal with pesky flankers and hyper-agile characters. A quick flash bang can end Lúcio’s parade, and McCree’s hitscan weapon and Ultimate make him a dangerous threat.

Symmetra: In Overwatch lore, Symmetra and Lúcio aren’t exactly the best of buds. It’s no surprise then that she makes a good counter to Lúcio’s agile gameplay. Sym’s turrets can slow and melt Lúcio if he strays into too many of them, and her Photon Projector let’s her latch onto and drain Lúcio’s health with minimal aiming.

Skins

Rare Skins

Lúcio’s rare skins are all colored variations of his Classic skin—a laid-back look that includes a casual tank top and enhanced cybernetic inline skate legs.

Credits: 75

Epic Skins

Auditiva: A white, orange and black variation of Lúcio’s rare skin, but with a pair of black visors that shade Lúcio’s eyes.

Seleção*: Lúcio Ball is Overwatch’s unofficial sport, and Lúcio is its mascot. He represents Brazil in this green, yellow and blue outfit. (Summer Games)

Striker*: Lúcio is probably the best Lúcio Ball player out there, and this white sports outfit changes his backpack into a ball net. (Summer Games)

Jazzy*: Lúcio wears a jazzy fedora and vest, and his inline skate legs are gold plated. Both healing aura and speed aura now include small jazz-inspired melodies that play whenever Lúcio crossfades between them. (2017 Anniversary Event)